Saturday, 19 October 2013

More Miniature Musings

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about my recent
struggles with my miniatures hobby, and how it was causing me as much stress as
enjoyment. I determined that my main problem was that I had far too many
unpainted miniatures, so I resolved to get rid of most of them. Well, I did,
and I can honestly say, I’ve felt much better about my hobby since.

That said, I have continued to investigate the question,
wondering if there are ways I can increase my enjoyment even more. For the last
few years, I have found myself slightly envious of those miniature gamers who
are able to focus on one period/setting/model range. Because of their greater
focus, these gamers are able to assemble very impressive collections where
every piece fits into the whole. They can also take their collections into much
greater depth. If only I wasn’t such a ‘miniatures butterfly’ flitting from
period to period...

Then it occurred to me, maybe the reason I can’t stick to
one period is because I’ve never actually tried. I’ve been perfectly willing to paint giant
robots one day and Napoleonic soldiers the next. Would I be happier if I just
picked one period and stuck with it, even if it proved to be an occasional test
of willpower?

Well, I’ve decided to give it a try. After a lot of thinking,
I have decided, at least for the next few months, I’m going to paint and
collect nothing but The Lord of the Rings
figures. (I’ll explain why I settled on this period in a future post). I want
to see if this focus actually brings more enjoyment to my hobby. I have a
suspicion that the underlying problem of having too many unpainted miniatures,
was that they were distracting me from the miniatures I really did want to
paint.

Also, I have reason to believe that over the coming year,
I will probably have less time to paint miniatures than ever before, and I
think focus could be key in my continued enjoyment.